swale
/sweɪl/
swale noun: a low tract of moist or marshy land. Also the alternative form of sweal.
Noun (1)
swale (plural swales)
- A low tract of moist or marshy land.
- A long narrow and shallow trough between ridges on a beach, running parallel to the coastline.
- A shallow troughlike depression created to carry water during rainstorms or snow melts; a drainage ditch.
- Bioswale, a shallow trough dug into the land on contour (horizontally with no slope), whose purpose is to allow water time to percolate into the soil.
- The stored water creates an underground reservoir that aids plant growth for tens of feet below the swale. Swales also prevent gullies from forming by intercepting rainwater, slowing it, spreading it, and storing it in the soil.2009, Toby Hemenway, Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, 2nd Edition, Chelsea Green Publishing, →ISBN, page 101
- A shallow, usually grassy depression sloping downward from a plains upland meadow or level vegetated ridgetop.
- Jane climbed a few more paces behind him and then peeped over the ridge. Just beyond began a shallow swale that deepened and widened into a valley, and then swung to the left.1912 January, Zane Grey, chapter 6, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC
Noun (2)
swale (plural swales)
Proper noun capitalized: Swale
Swale
- A river, a tributary of the Ure in North Yorkshire, England.
- A strait between the Isle of Sheppey and the Kentish mainland; in full, The Swale.
- A local government district with borough status in Kent, England, created in 1974 with its headquarters in Sittingbourne and named after the channel.
Also used as
swale is also the alternative form of sweal.
Forms of swale
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | swales |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | swales |
| present participle | swaling |
| past participle | swaled |
| past | swaled |
Origin of swale
Possibly from Middle English swale (“a shady place, a shadow”), perhaps of North Germanic origin; akin to Old Norse svalr (“cool, fresh”), Icelandic svalir (“a balcony running along a wall”).
See sweal.
From Old English *swalwe (“rushing water”), which could be related to swealwe. Also compare the proper noun Swallow.
Words formed from swale
Words that rhyme with swale
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- veil
- pale
- avail
- wale
- whale
- bail
- hail
- yale
- bale
- snail
- travail
- brail
- exhale
- frail
- jail
- prevail
- vail
- wail
- derail
- dwale
- entail
- flail
- Gail
- gayle
- impale
- kale
- quail
- regale
- spale
- thumbnail
- white whale
- ale
- curtail
- drail
- gale
- inhale
- retail
- shale
- tael
- unveil
- ail
- all hail
- assail
- ayel
- beyond the pale
- braille
- cakes and ale
- camail
Questions about swale
- What does swale mean?
- Swale means a low tract of moist or marshy land.
- What part of speech is swale?
- Swale can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce swale?
- Swale is pronounced /sweɪl/.
- What is the plural of swale?
- The plural of swale is swales.
Words near swale in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: swale (page history and authors); Swale (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-swale.wav.
Cite this entry: “swale.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/swale. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.